Chapter 1555: Heavy Bounty Offered

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Lin Yuzong took out a green jade flute and began to play it.

The joyful flute music made listeners feel incredibly pleasant, even creating the illusion of floating to the heavens.

Guang Dongren felt his mind grow hazy, and his gaze became somewhat dull. He felt as if he were in an extravagant paradise, with abundant fine wine and delicacies laid out before him.

His stomach rumbled, and he walked towards the fine wine and delicacies, clearly trapped in an illusion.

An Ran's expression was sorrowful, as if she were enduring some pain, and Su Yuren was weeping uncontrollably. All of them had fallen into the illusion.

Lin Yuzong continued playing the jade flute while accelerating his escape speed.

Just then, eighteen massive crimson fire pillars descended from the sky. Each crimson fire pillar was ten zhang in diameter. The eighteen crimson fire pillars converged, forming a massive crimson light barrier. On the crimson light barrier, eighteen crimson fire pythons, each over a hundred zhang long, moved continuously across its surface as if alive.

"Isn't this the Sky Python Demon-Locking Talisman, one of the three secret talismans of the Holy Talisman Palace? Bastard, you tricked me!" Lin Yuzong cursed loudly, his face filled with rage.

At the critical moment, Zhang Wuchen double-crossed Lin Yuzong, using a talisman to trap everyone. Lin Yuzong's hopes of breaking through the encirclement with Situ Mei were in vain.

A silver escape light suddenly flared in the void a hundred li away. With a flash of silver light, Zhang Wuchen's figure appeared. No, it should have been Situ Mei.

"Idiot, you believed everything I said. You only have yourself to blame for being so foolish," Zhang Wuchen sneered, his face filled with murderous intent. "It seems I can no longer stay in the South Sea. Beast Island, Myriad Swords Sect, Ouyang Family, I'll remember this debt for now. If I get the chance, this Palace Master will surely annihilate you all."

A brilliant silver light erupted from Zhang Wuchen's body, transforming him into a streak of silver light that shot through the air, covering a thousand zhang in an instant with astonishing speed.

On Golden Lotus Island, accompanied by a deafening roar, Fang Yue and the others broke free. As for Lin Yuzong, he had already been killed; Fang Yue had originally intended to capture him, but Lin Yuzong chose to self-destruct rather than be captured alive.

"Pursue them! We need to see them alive, or at least their bodies if they are dead. Fellow Daoist Ouyang, I'll leave the aftermath here to you," Du Xu said to Ouyang Shengtao, as a brilliant golden light erupted from his body.

A brilliant silver light erupted from Fang Yue's body. She and Du Xu merged into one, transforming into a golden and silver Taiji pattern that shot towards the horizon, covering ten thousand zhang in an instant.

Ouyang Shengtao gazed at the devastated Golden Lotus Island, his brows tightly furrowed.

After they returned to the South Sea, they contacted the Myriad Swords Sect and the Sun and Moon Palace, respectively.

According to Fang Yue's wishes, they should annihilate the Zhang family of Green Carp Island to eliminate future troubles. However, the Deity Transformation cultivator from Myriad Swords Sect spoke up, stating that grievances have their origins and debts have their masters; only the main culprit needed to be punished. This prevented the situation from escalating. Du Xu and Fang Yue personally took action, but unexpectedly, Situ Mei still managed to escape.

While escaping, Situ Mei attacked recklessly, causing heavy casualties among the cultivators on Golden Lotus Island. Over a thousand cultivators were caught in the aftermath of the battle; without any ability to resist, they were directly killed by the residual power of the Nascent Soul cultivators' fight, including several cultivators from the Wang family.

More than half of the market city was leveled. Numerous bodies could be seen among the ruins and rubble, some cultivators were still alive, uttering cries of pain, while others had severed limbs.

"Damn it, who was fighting in the market city? Don't they know this old man was in seclusion cultivation?" A furious male voice suddenly rang out. It was Huang Fugui.

He was still at the early Nascent Soul stage. He was originally in seclusion cultivation when his cultivation stone chamber suddenly exploded.

He saw the devastated market city, gaped in astonishment, and immediately shut his mouth.

At this moment, Wang Qingling also arrived. She gazed at the devastated market city, and her expression turned very grim.

Golden Lotus Market City was a large market controlled by the Wang family, providing them with a substantial income annually. After over a hundred years of development, Golden Lotus Market City had become one of the most renowned market cities in the Five Dragon Sea Domain. This time, it suffered severe damage; even if rebuilt, it would take an unknown amount of time and effort to restore it to its peak.

"Fellow Daoist Ouyang, what exactly happened here? Who did this?" Wang Qingling asked with a frown. The Ouyang family was related to the Wang family by marriage and would certainly not stand by while villains destroyed Golden Lotus Market City.

Ouyang Shengtao gave an awkward smile and recounted the entire sequence of events.

"What? Zhang Wuchen is Situ Mei, the Deputy Palace Master of the Moon Palace of the Sun and Moon Palace? Is that true?" Wang Qingling exclaimed in surprise. What shocked her even more was that Shangguan Wei had easily captured Ouyang Hongguang, a mid-Nascent Soul cultivator.

"Originally, it was just a conjecture," Ouyang Shengtao explained. "But from the current situation, Zhang Wuchen is indeed Situ Mei. No wonder she was able to lead the Zhang family to rise so quickly. Situ Mei has committed numerous evil deeds and absolutely cannot be allowed to live. This is also what Senior Zhao of Myriad Swords Sect intended." Ouyang Shengtao said in a stern tone that once Situ Mei was dead, the matter would be concluded, and with time, no one would bring it up again, which would be beneficial for both the Ouyang and Wang families.

Situ Mei had taken over the body of a Zhang family descendant. As long as she was alive, the reputation of both the Wang and Ouyang families would be affected. Her continued existence would tarnish their reputations and, in severe cases, could drag both families down.

Only a few years had passed since Wang Changsheng and Wang Ruyan left, yet such a major change had occurred. Wang Qingling couldn't contact them at the moment and had no way to send them a message.

"Since it's Senior Zhao's intention, then there's naturally no problem," Wang Qingling said with a smile, her heart feeling incredibly heavy. "We should comply."

She hoped Situ Mei would die so that the matter could quickly settle down. She thought that with two late-Nascent Soul cultivators personally taking action, Zhang Wuchen would have no chance of survival.

Twenty thousand li away, a Taiji pattern quickly streaked across the sky. With a flash of spiritual light, the Taiji pattern stopped, revealing Du Xu and Fang Yue, their faces slightly pale.

They were able to locate Situ Mei's whereabouts primarily by using a certain secret technique involving a fourth-tier Thousand-Legged Blood Gu Worm.

Each time the secret technique was used, a fourth-tier Thousand-Legged Blood Gu Worm would be consumed. Cultivating Thousand-Legged Blood Gu Worms was not easy. To find Ouyang Hongguang and Situ Mei, Beast Island had already expended two fourth-tier ones. To find Situ Mei, they would have to use another fourth-tier Thousand-Legged Blood Gu Worm to perform the secret technique.

"This bitch runs too fast! Faster than our escape speed?" Fang Yue said with a frown, believing they had a sure victory, yet Zhang Wuchen still escaped, which greatly infuriated her.

"She even has the Calamity-Transcending Talisman," Du Xu sighed, his face filled with worry. "She might have other escape talismans. Don't forget, she once ambushed and killed the Deputy Sect Master of the Nine Nether Sect. Who knows how many treasures she acquired? It seems we can only make a trip to Beast Island. I just don't know if Beast Island still has any fourth-tier Thousand-Legged Blood Gu Worms left."

"No matter what, we cannot let her live," Fang Yue said, her face filled with murderous intent. "She holds grudges deeply. If we don't eliminate her, she might target our sect's younger generations. Given her vindictive nature, there's nothing she wouldn't do. If they hadn't discovered it in time and allowed Situ Mei to advance to the Deity Transformation stage, they would have been in serious trouble."

A month later, a shocking piece of news quickly spread throughout the South Sea cultivation world: Zhang Wuchen, the ancestor of the Zhang family of Green Carp Island, was Situ Mei, the Deputy Palace Master of the Moon Palace of the Sun and Moon Palace. She had killed countless people and harmed low-level cultivators. For her own selfish gain, she had trespassed into the Puppet Emperor's Tomb and released the Netherworld Spiders, causing millions of mortals and tens of thousands of cultivators in the Northern Frontier cultivation world to die or be injured.

The three forces — Sun and Moon Palace, Myriad Swords Sect, and Ouyang Family — joined forces, offering a reward of ten million spirit stones for Situ Mei's capture. Those who harbored her and failed to report would be treated as accomplices. The Sun and Moon Palace promised that those who assisted them in capturing Zhang Wuchen would be rewarded with islands containing fourth-tier spirit veins, magical treasures, and spirit items for forming Nascent Souls. In short, if Zhang Wuchen was captured, the Sun and Moon Palace would bestow generous rewards without fail.